“What is the producer doing here?”
“Director Tim.”
“Are you here to publicly replace them?”
“Who will you replace among the both of them?”
Director Tim’s face was plastered with burning fury, but it was not on par with Stephen’s. Stephen felt like crashing Isabelle’s head on her wheelchair – only then will he call it an assault.
“Producer Stephen, are you here to publicly announce a replacement?”
Stephen brushed off the reporter and walked up to Isabelle, “How are you feeling now, Isabelle?”
Isabelle’s mind was in turmoil; she couldn’t understand what was going on. The producer’s face carried many traces of emotions that couldn’t be ascertained. “I’m… I’m…” She was uncertain of how to answer.
Stephen replaced his gaze with a profound look that made Isabelle slightly shiver… “Producer Stephen… did I… offend you?”
Stephen hissed then turned to Ivy. “Please continue.” Ivy smiled in response. “We are all aware I was called for questioning. The footage the police got hold of only showed when Isabelle was slapped and other bunch of irrelevant photos. But a particular footage revealed the culprit, and presently he is being captured by the police.”
“She is lying; the police haven’t captured the thug, they told me they are still looking for him.” Isabelle’s manager refuted immediately. “Ivy and the thug had come in contact with each other; the police have the footage to prove that.”
Ivy felt like laughing her ass off at his words. Is that what he was told? It seems he was getting the shorter end of the stick of the police’s latest update.
“Is that so? That means you haven’t been updated,” immediately she said this, the police arrived with Susan and Joan. A man was being dragged by the two officers. The man had brown hair and a mole close to his ears. The man’s appearance made Isabelle frown. She stood up suddenly and started pointing fingers at Ivy. “You sly woman, you are so evil. Don’t you have any shame?”
Ivy tilted her head with a scornful expression. “Is that so. That’s how you refute my claim. When you were spilling nonsense, I never responded with slurs.”
Isabelle huffed, visibly annoyed but inwardly swirling with fear.
The man lifted his face and looked at both Ivy and Isabelle.
Meanwhile, Ethan and Joan were smirking. They both had everything planned; it was only a matter of time before he points at Ivy as the one who hired him.
Surprisingly, things turned out the opposite. The man pointed at Isabelle instead, with a past memory flooding in his head.
***
After beating up Isabelle, he began strolling to his home, glad that his account was ringing close to a million dollars. But all of a sudden, he felt a hand grip his throat, and he was slammed to the wall with so much force that he couldn’t get back up. He managed to lift his chin, but it was met with a punch.
“You might want to start talking.” The hoarse voice made him shudder. Being a scoundrel and a thug, he knew the level of strength the man had to be able to overpower him to such an extent.
“Please let me go. I don’t know what you are talking about,” he lied, darting his eyes, looking for an escape route.
“Hm, as expected, you would want to cover up for your boss…” the strange man replied and held his throat.
Seeing the strange man’s eyes, his heart raced, throbbing in his chest. “Okay… I’ll tell you… I’ll tell you… everything… I know.”
“Good,” the strange man loosened his grip so he could speak properly.
“Someone paid me to beat her up. He also told me to run away. He told me in case I was caught by the police, I should lie that Mrs. Anderson hired me.”
“I think it will be much better for you to confess to someone else.”
“What, who…” He wasn’t given the chance to finish his question before he was dragged to a posh car at the quiet corner of the road. Immediately, he sighted the figure seated at the perch of the passenger’s seat; his brain collapsed.
“S… ir…” The word shuttered in his mouth. How had he offended this prominent figure? Then he remembered. ‘Mrs. Anderson.’ She had the same surname as… He immediately kneeled, pounding his head on the ground. “Please forgive me… I promise… I promise I will not lie against her.”
Zack’s gaze was fixed on him, watching him hurt himself.
“Sir, should I make him confess to the police once the situation escalates?” Edmond asked, but Zack just shrugged. “No.”
Edmond understood and tapped the man, who could hardly breathe, pounding himself while pleading for forgiveness. “Tell us everything you know.”
“It was a young man. I didn’t see his face clearly, but he had this… he had this… oh, no… I don’t know how to describe him.” The man was having a panic attack; how would he describe the man he met under a disguise to Zack Anderson, who lacks patience to listen to gibberish.
“Get straight to the point.” Zack didn’t care who the person was; he only wanted to know who he was targeting and why.
“He wants me to throw the blame on Mrs. Anderson; he wants me to…”
Zack cut him off. “When the time comes, make sure you confess the truth.”
Of course, he understood what to do, but the problem was, how would he bring himself to offend the other man that paid him? On the other hand, he couldn’t bring himself to offend Zack Anderson. So he made a decision.
“She is the one who paid me.”
Isabelle sprang up in shock. “I DON’T KNOW WHO HE IS, HE IS LYING!”
Joan’s eyes widened in surprise at the twisted turn of events. Wasn’t he supposed to point at Ivy? They wanted Ivy to first refute the claim; then the man would ruin everything by proving her wrong. When things go out of plan?
Ethan’s face dropped in disappointment, then his lips curved up again when he remembered his backup plan. How would she deny she didn’t know him when he had his phone number saved to her contact list?
The police officer brought out a smartphone and dialed a number. Then a phone rang. The reporters were anticipating the result, looking at both women to see their reaction. The reaction they were expecting was visible on the face of one of two women. Isabelle’s heart skipped a beat when she noticed her phone was ringing. Immediately, the police officer snatched her phone, showing the name of the caller:
“Des”
The guy’s name was Desmond…..